My Darling Dreadful Thing

A Novel

De: Johanna van Veen

Narrado por: Jess Nesling

Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror of 2024

Spirits are drawn to salt, be it blood or tears.

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.

Then, someone is murdered.

Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who—or what—is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.

"A Sapphic seance of preternatural proportions, My Darling Dreadful Thing summons a stunning new literary voice to be reckoned with. Johanna van Veen reaches beyond the veil to conjure up a gothic shocker like no other."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

©2024 Johanna van Veen (P)2024 Tantor

All the Gothic Goodness!

This novel is absolutely saturated with gothic goodness, and for the most part it is an enjoyable read for fans of the genre. As is the case with too many horror novels, though, the ending was lackluster. The story is a slow burn, creating the expectation that something intriguing will ultimately happen to horrify or, at least, unnerve the reader. No such luck, though, and the final chapters of this books are simply dull, the landing botched. That said, everything else about this novel is absolutely on point, so I'm trying not to be too mad. The decaying estate surrounded by a treacherous bog mirroring the mental decay of its inhabitants...all great stuff. Fans of Turn of the Screw will delight in this story, which draws heavily from that classic. In addition, everything about this novel was made better by the exceptional narration of Jess Nesling.

Sapphic ghost

Beautiful, heartbreaking and haunting. Engrossed throughout the story, beautiful depictions of love, grief, death and what it means to live.

In my opinion, wasn't the worst.

The story was pretty slow to start but was interesting enough to keep my attention long enough to finish it. It was fairly predictable, I feel the narrator did a decent job, it was cartoony or too animated at times, I felt. But overall it was not too bad. Not a bad book to pass the time with.

Outstanding Writing

I absolutely loved this gothic queer romance. The plot is so easy to get sucked into and the flawed and morally gray characters are absolutely unforgettable.

Sapphic ghosts? Count me in.

From page 1 I was captivated. The relationship between these women crescendos early but builds to a darling love I will think of often.

Moody and Dark

I thought I’d be scared a little because I’m a baby but this book is more eerie and leaves you feeling kind of just…sick and heavy. This book gave me seasonal affective disorder lol. It wasn’t bad…it just…you want to shake it off at the end and move on with your life.

Title

I expected more horror. The story was quite slow and lacking. I kept waiting for something huge to happen.

Deliberate, careful and engaging.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a good gothic ghost story, but glad I tried this. Is she mad or is she haunted? Maybe not the most original story line but most of this book feels fresh and interesting as the tale unwinds step by step and the characters become more and more real, flawed, vulnerable, and haunted. Many twists and turn I’d have never expected, but then the pathway was so interesting I wasn’t looking for twists and turns. I will look for more works by this author.

Heartbreakingly beautiful

This isn’t a horror story, but a love story. I really enjoyed how the author portrays spirits and how it is they come about, the companionship, relationships between human and spirit. The narrator done a wonderful job with all the characters. The author did such a great job as well with her descriptions of everything that I felt like I was part of the story.

The main character was written so well.

Pleasantly dark. The plot of this book is very well written. The narrator does a great job. I will look for more of her readings.